1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates broadly to the field of child care and feeding, and more specifically to an improved construction for utensils and other implements that may be used to feed infants and small children.
2. Description of the Related Technology
Most infants are bottle or breast fed a diet of breast milk or formula for the first three months after birth, and are introduced to solid food at about the fourth month. From the fourth until about the twelfth month, the child is spoon fed by the caregiver. From the twelfth month until about the eighteenth month, the child learns to feed herself with some assistance from a caregiver. After about the eighteenth month, most children are sufficiently advanced to feed themselves without assistance.
A panoply of different utensils for feeding children are available to parents. Some are made entirely of metal. Some are made entirely of plastic. Others, known informally in the industry as “soft bite utensils,” are metal that is coated with a soft plastic material on the end that is intended to be received in the infant's mouth. Utensils are available in a wide array of styles, and many are embellished with toy-like projections, cartoon figures, and the like for the child's entertainment.
An infant's senses are very keen, and her mouth and gums are very sensitive to contact with hard objects such as a spoon and, especially, to temperature variations. Gums are also very sensitive during teething. This is exacerbated by the fact that during the initial self-feeding period, the child will lack motor skills in opening and closing her mouth, using her tongue, and the hand and motor skills that are necessary to eat without occasionally poking her gums and other parts of her mouth with the utensil.
Experienced caregivers will attempt to test the temperature of food before giving it to the infant, but an adult who tests the food on a wrist or by sampling the food is not nearly as sensitive to temperature variations as the infant will be. Moreover, some caregivers will from time to time forget to test for temperature. A child that has progressed to self-feeding will eventually learn to be cautious when sampling heated food, but in the interim may have several painful or unpleasant experiences. Temperature is important for other reasons, as well. Pediatricians recommend that formula and the first baby food be served at a temperature that is as close as possible to 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit in order to minimize the possibility of “nipple confusion,” which is when the infant becomes confused and begins to refuse the mother's breast.
One company is presently manufacturing infant feeding spoons that are fabricated from a hard plastic material that is designed to change color when coming into contact with a hot substance. Although useful in determining when food is too hot, the hard plastic material is rough on the gums of an infant. In addition, the limited heat storage capacity of the plastic material means that the color change will, in some instances, occur too fleetingly or in too localized an area to be an effective warning to the caregiver or to the child. Another potential drawback with the thermochromic utensils made by this manufacturer is that they come in a number of different colors, and each color changes to a different color when heated. If the entire utensil is heated, it is impossible for a caregiver or child to know that a color change has taken place unless he or she noted the original color of the utensil before it was used. This could be a particular source of confusion to the child who is learning to self feed.
A need exists for an improved utensil for infants and small children that is protective of the child's sensitive mouth, and that is designed to effectively convey to a child or caregiver, without the possibility of confusion, when food on the utensil is too hot to be comfortably consumed.